Voice of the Daleks dies at 82

RIP Peter Hawkins

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The man who originally gave voice to the Daleks has died at the age of 82, The Stage reports.

Peter Hawkins' impressive list of TV credits also included Bill and Ben (for which he created the "flobadob" lingo), Super Ted, Captain Pugwash, Zippy in Rainbow* and the Martian robots in the 1970s Cadbury's Smash ads.

Hawkins featured in the Daleks' debut back in 1963. The Stage notes: "Something that Hawkins’s work on those early episodes of Doctor Who shows that the best voice artists, whatever the gig, should approach the work as a bona fide acting job. The early Daleks were menacing, raucous, scheming, frightened emotional creatures, not the staccato, monotonous bores they became in later years." ®

Bootnote

*Hawkins did the original voice for Zippy, "only to be succeeded by Roy Skelton, who eventually became the most prolific Dalek voice artist in later episodes", The Stage explains.